228 HAPPY HUNTING-GKOUNDS 



" policies." The gulls still follow the steamer with 

 their easy flight, and scramble for scraps after break- 

 fast and the midday meal. The omniscient purser 

 still greets the familiar faces of residents with a 

 smile of recognition, and the view is still entrancing, 

 although the colour now comes from withered bracken 

 instead of purpling heather. There is the old mixture 

 of smiles and tears it will be wonderful indeed if you 

 are not driven into the saloon by an occasional shower 

 but, then, how glorious are the gleams of sunshine on 

 the hills, the flying rainbows, and the cloud-effects in 

 the hollows ! All too soon for some the steamer draws 

 up at Ardrishaig, where the beckoning porters com- 

 pete for the privilege of landing your luggage, and 

 the voyage is at an end. 



The hour's drive to Poltalloch passes through 

 familiar ground. The fir-trees at Carnbaan are good- 

 sized timber now ; when I killed my first roe there 

 they were hardly up to my knees. At Kilmichael 

 Bridge I cast longing looks at the Add, and note 

 that the height of the water at the " Irishman's 

 Stone " indicates that " she" is in order. But what is 

 the good of this information in December ? it will be 

 six months at the earliest before a clean salmon is 

 captured in the Add with rod and line, and if we see 

 the Irishman's Pool at all this Christmas, it will be 

 from the banks of Kirnan when we are after wood- 

 cocks and cock pheasants. Next the woods of Balli- 

 more stretch upwards to the right, and there some old 

 blackcocks and quite a number of pheasants are feeding 

 in the field outside on the left. It is close time now 

 for the former, and they are tabooed, although it must 

 be confessed that an occasional " crow " finds its way 



